Hurry Up and Wait

posted by Jon Keller -

BOSTON, MA (WBZ-AM) -- There are some things in life that should be taken nice and slow.

Eating, for one. Driving in snow. Developing a romantic relationship, to name just a few.

And yet we live in a culture that emphasizes speed in some of these same activities. Fast food, fast cars and fast lanes, speed dating.

Go figure.

But one thing that annoys me whenever I see it is foot-dragging.

We’ve talked here about drivers who have the road wide open ahead of them to make a turn but decide to turn the act into a five-part series.

Our legislative bodies are notorious foot-draggers whose slogan seems to be never do anything that can be postponed until the very last moment.

And I am always amazed at how long it takes the authorities to investigate things that aren’t that complicated.

For instance, the current probe of alleged sexual harassment by former Senate President Stan Rosenberg’s husband. Interview the alleged victims, the alleged perps and a few eyewitnesses, and you’re done. We’re paying good money to a law firm to do this, there’s no reason why it has to drag on for months, running up the billable hours.

But no story of unnecessary delay can top the ordealof an upstate New York man busted for growing pot who was released from prison by an appellate court after spending seven years in lockup awaiting trial.

Seven years! For what turned out to be a one-week trial.

The court said it was the worst case of delay they’d ever seen, and every part of the system had a hand in the fiasco.

Why did they drag their feet so badly? Because they could.

And that’s a problem we have to start addressing, if we ever get around to it.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. Listen to his previous podcasts on iHeartRadio.